Japanese

REVIEW There’s a sense of mystery to Etsu Izakaya. A barn door devoid of signage is all that can be seen from the road, but slide it open and an Aladdin’s cave awaits. The long, dimly lit space is moody, almost whimsical, featuring floor-to-ceiling Japanese-inspired murals, a curved timber wall blending into the ceiling and […]

REVIEW Tiny drunk Japanese men. They’re everywhere: on the business cards, the menu. They make such a rich graphic statement that you almost wish there was a corresponding eatery back in Tokyo named for wasted Australian businessmen. The crowd packing the bar and tables, though, is young, hip and very Surry Hills, throwing down Salaryman […]

REVIEW At the beginning of your multi-course omakase meal at Kappo, a waiter will bring a tray of chopsticks, each pair a different style, and ask you to pick which you’d like to use. A similar choice of ceramic sake cup will be offered if you’ve chosen to match sake with some of the dishes […]

REVIEW A clean, slightly stark room and neat plywood furnishings are clues to the thinking at Three Japanese. Fussy and complicated? Not here. Instead, an assured kitchen serves food that speaks of clarity and simplicity. Start with the tsukemono plate, a varied collection of Japanese pickles that leads with stepping-stone certainty through a range of […]

REVIEW The contented diners vying for tempura-battered Moreton Bay bugs and juicy chicken thighs with yuzu honey and slivers of radish may have stumbled up from the casino below. But, truth be told, most are here expressly to dine at Kiyomi. The buzzy venture, sibling to Sydney’s Sokyo, is headed by Nobu alumnus Chase Kojima. […]

Sydney’s latest authentic, ambitious yakitori bars raise chicken-on-sticks to new heights, writes Pat Nourse, and Sydneysiders are eating them up.

Yearning for an upmarket sushi bar that transports you straight to the streets of Tokyo? Say konichiwa to Minamishima, a hushed temple of Japanese culture in Melbourne’s backstreets, writes Michael Harden.

Kappo introduces the traditional Japanese dining style of the same name and takes it to a whole new level, writes Michael Harden.

REVIEW The words “charcoal chicken, sesame yoghurt” don’t really scream izakaya, but this is Cho Cho San, that charcoal is binchotan and the chicken in question – flesh juicy, skin crackled – is rounded out with pickled ginger and splashes of soy. Sit at the concrete bar with a mix of inner-city types and locals, […]

REVIEW Quirky Moga is the Japanese version of the neighbourhood bistro everyone wants to find at the end of their street. There’s a sushi conveyor in a wood-panelled backroom with posters of 1920s moga (modern girls), but the garden terrace, with paper lanterns and timber screens, is an even more congenial spot to raise a […]

REVIEW Chicken pâté sushi. It’s not exactly textbook Japanese cooking, doubly so when deep-fried and accented with spicy moro miso. But that’s precisely the kind of open-mindedness that defines Miki’s Open Kitchen, a dedicated – yet decidedly relaxed – tempura restaurant in the wine and surfie hamlet of Margaret River. Tempura parcels of nori-wrapped garfish […]

Potts Point newcomer Cho Cho San is no paint-by-numbers creation, but rather a free-form rendition of hip Nippon dining, writes Pat Nourse.

Simon Denton and Con Christopoulos have long shaped the way Melbourne eats and drinks. In their latest ventures, things get personal.

REVIEW Sokyo is different things to different diners. The name fuses Sydney and Tokyo, and for the most part it’s a blazing Harajuku swirl of boisterous flavours. You might start with the kingfish ceviche topped with slivers of potato and a hint of chilli, or be tempted by the tuna on a hot, crunchy rice […]

REVIEW We’d call it a quiet achiever if the music wasn’t rocking quite so hard. Izakaya Fujiyama is one of Sydney’s top destinations for Japanese snacks and possibly its best for sake. There’s a world of sake on offer and most of the waitstaff can follow even the vaguest instruction (“I want something to cool […]

Restaurateur Paul Mathis is back, and his latest Japanese venture is the real deal, albeit one that’s as much Melbourne as it is Tokyo. Michael Harden visits Akachochin.